Climate change is a faith issue because it deals with God’s creation and with poverty, said Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa.
The cardinal, president of Caritas Internationalis, was in Durban, South Africa, for the U.N.-sponsored international conference on climate change; he discussed the conference with journalists at the Vatican. Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 165 national Catholic charities, provides emergency relief and development aid around the globe. But it also teaches Catholics about the church’s social doctrines, advocating and educating people about issues of justice and peace, he said. At a time when so many people in the world are starving, it was important for Caritas to be in Durban “because one of the causes of starvation is climate change and, especially, irresponsible attitudes toward creation,” Cardinal Rodriguez said. For the Catholic Church, he said, climate change is not only a matter of “thermometers or scientific analysis, we are talking about human beings and the sufferings of human beings.” Catholics need to know that climate change is real and it is a problem that must be faced, the cardinal said. The way people treat the environment must change quickly, “not after all the consequences and tragedies that will come,” he said. “It is a faith issue because, from the very beginning of the Bible, you see how creation was entrusted to human beings” for their administration, not for their exploitation, he said.
VATICAN CITY (CNS)